The Nonrequired Required Reading List

When Daniel A. Gross ’13 thought about life after graduation, he decided that with his departure from campus, he didn’t want to lose the education he got sitting around in dining halls, hearing and participating in conversations on all sorts of subjects.

He created a solution: The Best Harvard Nonrequired Required Reading List.

"My sense is that when we graduate from college, we keep a certain individualized, personalized education," he said. "But we lose that communal aspect."

Gross sought to compile a list of students’ favorite assigned readings from their time at Harvard.

He wrote to the Currier House email list with a request: “help me build a Harvard College-curated pile of once-required, now-nonrequired reading that any undergrad can use when they're looking for something interesting to read.”

Gross invited students to each name a favorite reading and write 10 words about the work.  The list, which Gross says is currently in its early stages, contains over 40 titles.